Kim Dotcom

Kim Schmitz aka Kimble (* January 21 1974 in Kiel) is a German self-proclaimed hacker and businessman.

In the late 90s Schmitz has gained publicity through his several high profile break-in claims. He was part of the German BBS scene and had his own BBS called "House of Coolness". On March 23 1998, Schmitz was sentenced to two years on probation for computer crimes such as dealing with stolen calling cards and credit card fraud. To reduce the sentence, he turned in and testified against many of his BBS-related comrades - a move which disgusted the whole BBS-scene and ensured him the top 10 spot for the "Most Hated Person" charts in the Worldcharts diskmag for years ahead. (As of the last issue, released in 2002, he was #6.)

Schmitz informed Letsbuyit.com, a company having financial difficulty at that time, that he was going to inject millions of dollars into the business. He then bought approximately $375,000 worth of shares in the business. When news of this hit the stock exchange, share prices in Letsbuyit went through the roof. Schmitz then sold his shares for a large profit and walked away from the company. The share prices of Letsbuyit crashed to an all time low. Schmitz was fined approximately $250,000 for undue influence of a trading stock.

In 1998 Schmitz founded a computer security company Data Protect. He sold the company in 2000 to "TÜV Rheinland". In 2001 TÜV Data Protect was renamed to TÜV SecureIT. Today Schmitz is on probation for attendance in insider trading. During the new economy times Kim Schmitz became famous for his decadent lifestyle and expensive events.

Schmitz got attention for several PR stunts. In 1999 Kim Schmitz was driving around on the Munich airport for hours taking photos of himself in the cockpits of parked airplanes. In 2001 he offered a reward of USD 10 million for capture of Osama Bin Laden. His newly founded hacker group YIHAT (Young intelligent hackers against terrorism) didn't succeed in any of their anti-terrorism goals.

Since 2001, Schmitz has had media coverage as a founder of a Hong Kong based investing company called Trendax. The company claimed to use AI for best investment options' selection, but never went public.

In January 2002 he announced his own suicide on his personal homepage. In fact his announcement was just part of a marketing campaign for his new project "Kimpire". The Kimpire website is a central point with links to all of his projects and companies.

Schmitz is active in the streetracing scene. He took part in the Gumball 3000 rally several times and won it in 2001. He currently runs a website that claims he is organising a street race called "Ultimate Rally". The event was originally announced for August 2006, but was postponed to 2007 after collecting money from potential participants. It is, however, worth noting that the participants are offered a full refund if they do not wish to wait until 2007. No details about the race have ever been released.

Schmitz is currently reported living between Germany and Hong Kong. As of late 2006, a number of his websites (including www.kimble.org) are blank.

In early 2007, Schmitz anonymously started recruiting for a new venture nicknamed "employer 2.0" at 207.218.248.46, which was also available at ultimaterally.com - a domain registered in his name.[1]

External links

• A documentary about Kimble (German)
• Kim Schmitz's personal home page
• Kimpire
• The Register: Bin Laden hack-meister in defacement, financial debacles
• The Register: YIHAT founder Kimble/Schmitz arrested
• Kimble arrested for insider trading
• The Register: Hoaxster hacker discovers infinite-wealth algorithm

It is rumored that Kim currently resides in the Philippines.

His latest project seems to be megaupload.com

Among other projects it is registered to Monkey Limited in Hong Kong.

• OwnerShip verification

He has a great world wide Alexa rating, but it is entirely "possible" that they are fake or skewed and based upon the fact that he is distributing the Alexa toolbar to his users.

• Megaupload Alexa rating

He seems to be running around gathering Venture Capital.